A conventional incoming call answering system constructed of a private branch exchange and a voice storage device determines whether to answer or not, depending on caller information. As disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. H10-13873, when a signal indicative of an incoming call from a public network is input to the private branch exchange or the voice storage device, a calling number detector detects a calling number, and the voice storage device searches through the contents of a personal answering control memory based on an extension number and the calling number that are detected. If the calling number is a number that is allowed to be answered, a controller of the voice storage device issues a command for calling a designated extension telephone, whereby control is performed to establish a link between the public network and the designated telephone. If the calling number is a number that is disallowed to be answered, a message from a caller is recorded in a box of a voice storage memory that corresponds to the caller.
Another incoming call answering system performs such answering processing as to route the incoming call by utilizing paging. In this incoming call answering system, the private branch exchange allows the voice storage device to receive the call just as it is when the call arrives from an outside line such as a public line, and the voice storage device goes off-hook to connect to the line. Next, the voice storage device retrieves a stereotyped message, such as “Please hold on for a moment”, stored in its audio guidance storage unit, transmits this message to the caller and places the line on hold for a while to call a called party by paging.
Since the caller can be identified by use of, for example, an ISDN call setup message or the caller information (calling number) transmitted over an analogue line by a number display service, a message including the name of the caller, such as “There is a call from XX”, is synthesized, forwarded to the extension telephones and announced from all the extension telephones at once with an outside line button of each of the extension telephones being blinked. When the called party or a party concerned presses the blinking outside line button, the line is connected for conversation. In cases where no one presses the blinking outside line button even after a lapse of a specified time, the voice storage device retrieves a stereotyped message such as “We cannot answer the phone now, so we will record your message” from the audio guidance storage unit, returns the line, which has been put on hold, to a talk mode, answers by transmitting this stereotyped message and shifts to a message recording mode.
Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. H09-289550 discloses paging performed by a private automatic branch exchange connected to an external output device. Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. H11-187113 discloses a technique for converting the caller information (calling number) to voice.
However, answering processing performed by the conventional private branch exchange and voice storage device has the following problem. When the signal indicative of the incoming call from the public network is input to the private branch exchange or the voice storage device, the line is first connected to send an automatic guidance message to the caller. In cases where the caller is requested to hold on, the line is placed on hold, and no sound or BGM or the like is played. This causes the caller to worry whether calling is really being made or to become impatient for the line to go off-hook because the caller will be charged for the call.
In many cases, even those who hear the general calling wonder if the calling is really for them or hesitate about whether to answer the phone because the content of the synthesized message is superficial. If a wrong person answers the phone, call redirection is repeated again, so that it is useless to make the calling by paging.